Guide – An Enduring Classic

The Guide (1965 ) is based on the novel by R.K Narayan who also wrote the Malgudi Days, the movie adaption directed by Vijay Anand and stars Dev Anand-Waheeda Rahman in stellar performances.

Plot Summary 
Guide is about Raju (Dev Anand) who is a tourist guide and his complex relationship with Rosie (Waheeda Rahman) who is a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage with Marco
who is an archaeologist obsessed with his work.

Rosie turns suicidal but Raju comes into her life and helps her break free from her husband and mentors her to become a classical dancer with great success. They start living together which alienates Raju's family. Eventually his insecurities and access to instant wealth makes him jealous and gets  intimidated by her success. In a moment of indiscretion, he commits a forgery and he gets jailed and the difference of opinions drives a wedge in the relationship of Rosie and Raju. 

Once Raju leaves jail instead of returning to Rosie or his family, he runs away and he is mistaken for a saint in a village. Eventually due to a drought, the villagers persuade him to undertake a 12 day fast to evoke the rain Gods. 

Rosie, his mother and friends try persuading him to give up his fast but he refuses as he does not want to break the faith of the villagers. Eventually the faith of villagers is rewarded and Raju dies in the end but in the end after achieving true peace of mind and transforming from a man to an ideal.  

Takeaways from the Movie  

The first and most daring plot device of a woman in an unhappy marriage and her courage to walk out and have an affair with another man. For the 1960's India it was tremendous leap ahead to show a live in relation between Raju and Rosie. 

Secondly Rosie's pursuit of her dreams to become a dancer and how that leads to souring of her relationship with Raju who eventually succumbs to the typical insecurities. The depiction of an imperfect relationship is quite a refreshing change to the typical goody two shoes romances of the 60's Hindi cinema. 

Thirdly when Raju goes to the village, the depiction of rural India, abject poverty and the willingness of the masses to follow anyone as a spiritual guide / leadership. The rich have the luxury to entertain ideas of atheism and the triumph of science over religion but for the poor, only faith in a higher power God is the only comfort to live on another day. 

Fourthly the movie deals is the exploration of Hindu beliefs of the eternal soul and impermanent body, so when finally Raju dies for the village, it is not an unpleasant choice but actually an evolution in his mindset. The transformation of a impostor to an spiritual being is quite plausible and engaging.

Guide as the Metaphor 

The “Guide” is quite the metaphor, in the first phase, Raju is 'Tourist Guide' guiding people as his work, then he becomes 'Guide-Mentor' to Rosie to end her unhappy marriage and also become a successful dancer. The Third phase of his life is 'Guide-Guru' to the masses as the spiritual Guru. But the most significant transformation as 'Guide to Himself' when he is able to rise above his ego, attachments and pettiness to sacrifice his life for the people.

In the name of 'Bold' movies we are subjected to semi-pornographic movies these days but to be honest, Guide sans skin show was a bold, unconventional movie.  

Words do not do enough to describe this great classic of Indian cinema, I recommend you the reader to catch it soon. 

Why do we worry??

An experimental post - I tried using the 5 Why technique to find the root cause of a common problem of worrying.

Why do we worry?

Because we feel we lack control of our destiny  

Why do we feel the lack of control?

Because our plans don’t seem to work at all

Why don’t our plans work?

Because we cannot control things like the economy, people, family problems and other acts of God.

Can we control factors which are outside of our control?

No we need to have patience and wait for things to unfold!

Then why do we lack patience?

It is a lack of faith in our abilities.

Is Faith very important?

The best is to believe in a higher power like benevolent God or at least believe in yourself.

In a terrible situation we lose faith in ourselves and in doing so we also lose confidence in our skills and become a pale shadow of our former selves.

Its remarkable when you need courage the most, we fail. So the only answer to problems in life is having patience, by patience I don’t mean you put up with rubbish but wait enough time for your plans to succeed.

Indeed there will be days when patience will wear thin, those are the days you need to reach out to your friends and family.  Only our true can re-enforce the trust and remind us of our true abilities.

Even Lord Hanuman needed to be reminded of his true nature and skills before He could travel to Lanka to find Sita.

So never be lonely and keep your friends and family close and off course keep the faith

Thank God …. Why God ?

As much I try to move away from the Mumbai Terror attack of 26/11 from making it the topic of discussion on my blog, I am unable to think further. Let me be honest, I feel the jitters in a crowded places like in the malls or when I venture out of my work place, the company which is one of the symbols of Indian economy of an terror strike. One consistent comment, I got about my last post about the five vultures, was that I was only commenting on the problems but did not actually address the issue.

My answer to that is I am really not yet come to the frame of mind to arrive at the definitive solution. If I have to surmise what I feel is possible, is to continue to apply diplomatic pressure on our neighboring nation and increase the vigilance of the borders. It will be a long drawn out struggle to root out this menace of terror. Maybe more of the my thoughts to address this issue in the next post perhaps.

In the continuing coverage on the television channels, most of the victims said Thank God, we made it out alive from the ordeal. There are many people who just escaped the massacre because of serendipity. All these people have a God to thank, but to think of the unfortunate ones who lost their lives, further more their families and friends in this tragedy. These lives are left with life long emotional scars. Why God ?

Why God allows innocents die in such mindless conflicts? Why do women feel so unsafe in the world and have to face rape, dowry deaths and domestic violence? Why is there poverty and hunger for so many in this world. I can ask countless such questions and fill up reams of virtual paper.

Alternatively I have a thousand reasons to thank god as well. Thank God for giving me a good family and friends. Thank god for providing me with the opportunities for this education and lifestyle. Thank God for creating such a magnificent creation that is nature and the beauty which surrounds all of us.

I admit for a long time, ideologically I was getting driven towards atheism and recently I read this book 'The God Delusion' which makes the case for atheism and denounces religion in all forms. I agree on one point in this book that the concept of personal God is based on irrational belief and is just based on the random continent and community into which a person is born into actually. I could have been Hindu or Muslim depending on the family into which I was born into and would on to advocate either religion with equal ferocity depending on the conditioning I would have received from childbirth.

But still, there are some mysteries like the origin of the universe and why humans are the only dominant species in this planet that has such an evolved mind and a sense of free will. When I see arguments on both sides, I am forced to admit I find myself gravitating towards the middle and I say I do not know if God exists or not.

Both sides operate on assumptions made on a certain premise which seems so obvious to one side and not so to the other side. As long as arguments are based on some assumptions, the debate can never find a logical end with one side coming up triumphs. I have to state my final words on this issue, as long any man follows his heart and does no evil to other and spends his energies to better himself and society that is a good enough philosophy for me.

The best gift man has received is his intellect and the freedom to make his own choice. Off course you also won't have your way always. When 6 billion humans in the world are exercising their free will in the same time ( that includes politcians, jehadis and also the girl whom you really care about :P as well). In my view the many possiblities and interaction of so many variables is Destiny, not that a God in heaven is writing our fates in a celestial book but just the thoughts and actions of His creations on this earth. In a way this world is a self governing system.

So as long as happiness and sorrows co-exist in this world, so will the questions Thank God, Why God ? persist. I would like to conclude with a quote I really like “It is not about how the cards are dealt, it is how you play them”